Hatches have been used for many years in marine vessels and recreational vehicles to provide ventilation to the interiors. Although there are many types and styles of hatches marketed today, one common configuration utilizes a hinge on one side of the opening and one or more latches usually placed opposite the hinge. Many hatches include a means for maintaining the position of the hatch lid in a fully or partially open position.
While it is generally agreed that hatches accomplish their purpose of improving ventilation, this new and novel invention improves their functionality by enabling users to operate them remotely or by providing a means to open and close hatches automatically as described below.
There are many instances when it is desirable to have the ability to open and close marine vessel hatches remotely or automatically. One example is when the operator of the vessel is alone and unable to leave the helm of a vessel to open a hatch to provide ventilation or to close it when rougher seas are encountered to prevent spray from entering the interior of the vessel. Larger or more elaborate vessels may have many hatches and the ability to open and close some or all of these hatches by pressing a single button would be quite desirable. Still another example of the usefulness of an automatic hatch would be if the user of the vessel desired to leave the vessel unattended with the hatches open, said hatches could be configured to close automatically based on various circumstances, including rain, an increase or decrease in temperature, or after a predetermined period of time.
Likewise, users of recreational vehicles will find it valuable to open or close hatches automatically for many of the same reasons that users of marine vessels do.
There are other examples of prior art that have used a powered means to open and close hatches. Uflex Group markets linear actuator designed to lift very large hatches (265 lbs/120 kg) that might prove too heavy for the average user to lift. The Uflex system and others like it utilize an electric motor and screw mechanism which is not suitable for common ventilation hatches because of their size, cost and complexity.
These systems also would not lend themselves to safe automatic operation of smaller ventilation hatches because the forces that they are capable of have the potential for personal injury.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,277 to Kolt recognized the value of automatically opening a hatch in a mobile home and describes a system that uses an expanding diaphragm to do so. Although this system responds to changes in temperature, it cannot be automatically opened and closed when desired by the user and it does not lend itself to reacting to other desirable parameters such as rain or the speed of the vehicle or vessel.
AutoAdapt of Sweden markets a pneumatic hatch opener for a “hatchback style automobiles”. This system includes the safety advantage of using pneumatics but is not well suited for marine vessels because, among other things, it does not include a means for latching. The AutoAdapt also lacks a means for sensing other environmental factors such as heat or rain. The AutoAdapt system also does not have a means for controlling multiple hatches simultaneously.
Others, including U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,277 to Magalotti, have used pneumatic gas springs to assist users in opening hatches, but these systems still require manual operation.
Although these systems and others improve upon manual operation of hatches, each have shortcomings that this new and novel invention overcomes as described below.